HYMN TO VANA-DURGA, PROTECTOR OF WILDNESS
During the Holy Days of Navratri that honors the Goddess Durga, I received a series of hymns to VanaDurga, the Durga of the deepest primal forest. She is a very powerful Goddess who uses all the weapons and powers of the gods to defeat evil. In this case she is envisioned as the voice and strength of the Earth Mother, a Feral Goddess who protects all the endangered wilderness and wild animals. May she hear our cries.
O great Goddess of Beasts
Lady of the holy mountains
Mother of fang and claw, scales and wings and tusks
great primordial mother of the deepest darkest jungles
Of sacred Groves and Crevices
You who lurks in the host ancient caverns and deep-sea caves
O Lady of infinite wildness in life, Hear us!
You who stalk and pounce, slash and bite
Abiding in the heart of every predator
You bring blood in the joy upon rough hewn altars
and the play and the dance and the song of every hunt.
You are the dignity and the intensity of the undomesticated
you are greatest Mother of the uncivilized and wild
you who’s many arms of lightning power
hold everything everything everything!
Everything sharp and pointed and ready to bite the evil ones
Every blessing and curse, every life and death whisper.
You are the greatest, O Most Ancient Primordial Goddess!
All things wild come from you, all prey is devoured by you
you are the Primal Protector of cub and child
You are She Who Kills the vermin and invader
You alone speak in the roar of the lion!
You you are the silence of the stalking tiger and the screech of the peacock
you are The Indomitable One, the core of wilderness with eyes of fire!
We hear you whispering within the darkest forest
You are the terrifying place where no human is meant to tread
The holy hidden verdant shrine, impossible to reach
There you are, there you dwell, until you leap forth
You wear glittering vines of tropical flowers and,
dripping with moisture and sweat and blood and sap
Upon your altar of the ancient bones of every beast
Mossy remains, caressed, loved, remembered
Between between you bloody paws your wild children sleep, protected
from the smallest margay to the largest elephant for you are MA
At twilight feral ones gather there in the gloaming
To bow and sing you O Fur Mother of Wild and Hidden Wonders
Roaring and hissing hymns for protection
O MA, save all your wild children from the tyranny of man!
We your wild children of howled blessings, join the paeons and pleas!
May your jungles Leap fourth with claws of green and red!
To destroy the human interlopers!
O Durga Ma! Hear us , protect us, bless the wildness in us all!
One flaming with all the energy and power of all the gods!
Come riding your leaping lion from the the sacred mountains
Roaring and howling and growling, waving a wall of demon-killing blades
Filled with the holy fires of feral intensity!
Come and defend the green world, defend your children!
Defend we beasts who love you, for we are your kin and your progeny!
Terrifying mother! Loving Mother!
Save us from the demons of death machines and hate and greed
Destroy them utterly! Devour them! Drive the mindless ones into the sea!
You of mountains, forests and deep bloody oceans
Defend us, the wild ones, the green ones with feet rooted in earth
Shield us from the insane devouring ones O Ma, for no one else can!
Jai Durga Jai Durga Jai Durga Ma! Svaha!
Primal Lady, come erupt from the depths of dark forest
Take what is yours!
You, sharp teeth of Great Earth Mother
Bloody tongue of Great Earth Mother
Red claws, terrifying roar, blazing eyes of Shakti Ma!
Come O voice and lioness of Bhu Devi!
It is you who guard and push and kill when it is necessary
Containing all the fire and power of the gods you kill the anti-gods!
Now come forth! Now pounce upon the mindless destroyers!
Those who rape and burn and tear and kill the Earth
Devour those that slaughter the wild children who gather about you!
For the wild beasts of the jungle are your the ganas, your feral spirits,
You call and they emerge from trees and rocks, caves and rivers
They drum and dance and howl growl ancient paens
To the slashing clashing of your weapons and terrifying laughter!
O Shri Durga save us, save the wild ones!
you instill in us all your pure ferocious spirit
of wardship and love and nurturing and red anger
Come great Durga Ma! O greatest ancient power! Heed our rising cries!
Come from the depths of every forest!
Come from every deep hidden place!
Come cascading from all the celestial lights!
Your weapons are shooting stars blazing across the sky!
Your blinding image emerges from a great cloud of every color!
O hidden one ever revealed,
By the keening cry of the wildness hidden within each of us.
you you are the first and the last
From your burning love, all things are born and die with joy.
We invoke you by the pounding of our furious feet
By the clapping of our grieving hands, listen to out cry:
DUM DUM DUM O MA!
Prowl prowl!
Stop stop!
Crush crush!
Push aside push aside
the evil devouring, poisoning, hate!
There is no stopping you, no stopping you, no stopping you!
No way to stop you O greatest Mother Mother Mother!
Crush crush!
Put the flight, put the flight!
Stab, cut, hound hound hound all the evil ones!
All those who destroy Ma
All those who poison Ma
All those who kill the the children of Ma!
Stab stab
Crush crush
Pound pound!
Put to flight, put to flight with your fearful roar the hateful despoilers!
Burn burn burn those burn the Forest and the mountains
Those demons who poison rivers and oceans
Those who torture your wild children!
Cut cut!
crush crush!
pound pound!
The wildness killers, into the black earth!
Drive, drive them away from the wild places!
Push, push them away from the secret places!
Expel expel them from the clean rivers, waterfalls and seas
Destroy them without mercy! Save your surviving wild children!
O mighty mighty goddess who wields all weapons, all power!
Unleash your terrible gaze, your destroying smile,
For you are the pure mother of all things, protector of forests
You are one who makes us or our children not die of sickness and poison
You stand and fight and protect the helpless, the voiceless
The furred and clawed ones, the scaled and creeping ones, the flying ones
The monstrous beasts and all that is green and glowing,
Protect and save with your vast green love
all living things that are disappearing
Safeguard all with your million pointed arms
Durda Ma, purify and change the hearts of men,
Open their eyes and souls to feel wildness, to know and understand
O Mother, you are the force and fire of the universe-wake up!
Come forth from the dark heart of the primal!
We call you to save your wild crying dying children!
Descend now with ferocious love O Durga Ma! Dum Dum Dum! Svaha!
On paw and claw and hoof we bow to you O Ma with utter devotion
Hear our cry!
Let it be done, done, DONE!
Svaha svaha SVAHA!
OM
- The cry of the wild ones unto Durga, Navratri 2020- Hermeticusnath